Public Policy and Saving in the United States and Canada

John Sabelhaus

Canadian Journal of Economics, 1997, vol. 30, issue 2, 253-75

Abstract: Canadians have largely unrestricted access to tax-preferred saving through the Registered Retirement Saving Plan (RRSP) programs. No comparable program exists in the United States. Previous research has noted that household saving in Canada grew relative to saving in the United States after the RRSP program was initiated, suggesting that a program like the RRSP can increase saving. This paper shows that the difference in household saving in the United States and in Canada is more plausibly characterized as a simple life-cycle response to differences in the overall intertemporal income reallocation built into tax and public pension systems, rather than as a response to RRSP availability.

Date: 1997
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